^3 

37/ 



pennulTte* 



E 453 
.B77 
Copy 1 



EMANCIPATION 



Its Justice^ Expediency and Necessity^ as the Means of securing a 
Speedy and Permanent Peace. 

AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BY 



■vU3 



o>r^ 



HON. GEORGE S, BOUTWELL, 



.y 



.V 



TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON", 



UNDER THE AUSPICES OP 



/ 



THE EMANCIPATION LEAGUE, 

DECEMBER 16, 1861. 



The announcement that Hon. George S. 
Boutwell Avould deliver the Inaugural Address 
before the Emancipation League, upon " The 
Justice, Expediency and Necessity of Emanci- 
pation," called together an assemblage of the 
people of Boston and vicinity remarkable for 
character and intelligence, even in this intelli- 
gent community. The large audience — (the 
hall being crowded in every part) — heard the 
speaker throughout with profound attention, 
broken, however, by frequent and enthusiastic 
applause. Upon the platform were a large 
number of distinguished citizens, including 
officers connected with the State and United 
States governments. 

The meeting was called to order by Rev. A. 
A. Miner, who made a brief statement in 
regard to the object of the League, viz. : To 
further in the hearts of the people the measures 
which will promote the freedom of the slaves, 
and to encourage the government to use what- 
ever opportunity the progress of our armies 
shall afford to carry liberty with those armies, 
and suppress the rebellion by removing its 
cause. At the conclusion of his remarks, he 
introduced, as the Chairman of the meeting. 
Dr. Samuel G. Howe. 



Dr. Howe said that the speaker whom he 
was about to introduce would try to prove the 
justice, expediency and necessity of emancipa- 
tion. He must be a bold man to undertake 
such a task, for it is as difficult as it would 
be to prove that two and two make four 
to an audience who should doubt the fact, and 
demand the proof. 

The government practically denies this 
and other axiomatic truths, and consequently 
involves itself in all sorts of difficulties and 
embarrassments, over which it continually 
stumbles, as it goes blundering along. 

For instance, a rebel's ownership to his 
house or his ship may be clear and incontesta- 
ble, for it is founded in the very principles 
which underlie the right of property ; and 
yet the government declares it forfeit, — and 
tells our soldiers and sailors they may disre- 
gard it. But when it comes to his title to a 
man or a woman, which in its very essence is 
a sham and a lie, then the government recog- 
nizes his ownership, and talks about his consti- 
tutional right. 

The written and the unwritten history of our 
country shows that human slavery has been the 
vitiating element in our political institutions ; 






THE EMANCIPATION LEAGUE. 



that it is now not only putting them in peril 1 
but likewise endangering the great experiment | 
of man's capacity for self-government ; and j 
that if slavery were abolished there would be 1 
no great cause of discord in the Union ; and i 
yet, out of a superstitious regard for this ac- | 
cursed root of bitterness and wickedness, our j 
government holds back from striking the rebel- 
lion full in the stomach, and utterly crippling , 
it at once. 

The South is encouraged, the North is dis- 
couraged, and the world is disgusted with the j 
policy of our government in this matter. 

An army needs ideas as well as bread. 
Like a man, in order to do great deeds, an 
army needs an imposing idea — a great watch- 
word — an object worth fighting for and dying j 
for. Such an idea — such a watch-word would 
be the emancipation of four millions of human 
beings ; but such is not a vague cry of Union — 
Union ! 

But not only docs the government withhold 
this breath of life and honor from the army, but 
it converts it into an engine to keep up slavery^ 
to keep down emancipation, and to hold the 
slaveholder's victim for him if perchance he 
escapes. 

From the early proclamation of McClellan 
that servile insurrection should be put down 
with an iron hand, to the late proclamation of 
Halleck, which virtually drove back fugitive 
slaves from our lines, the policy of our com- 
manders when they approach a slave region 
has been, with a few honorable exceptions, to 
deter the negro from acting against his master, 
and so to convert the black race into enemies. 
Nay ! Northern officers have been found base 
enough to betray poor fugitives. Northern 
soldiers have been made slave-catchers for 
Southern masters ; and Northern officers have 
disgraced themselves by deeds which even 
heathen knights would have spurned as mean 
and cowardly. The scutcheon of our beloved 
State even has been soiled and disgraced in 
this way. 
It is not the public and acknowledged policy 



of the government to hold fugitive slaves for 
the benefit of their masters, and so to keep 
open a door for reconstruction upon the same 
old iniquitous basis of Union, but that it is the 
real aim facts will show. 

Fugitives are never invited into our lines, 
but when they force themselves in they are 
taken into custody at those places there is a 
chance for them to escape to the North. 

Look at Fortress Monroe ; not only cannot 
a fugitive get a passage to the North, but the 
vessels leaving the place are searched to pre- 
vent it. 

At Washington they are locked up In jail to 
prevent their escape. The public prints have 
lately told you all about this. 

Dr. Howe then related his recent examina- 
tion of the jail in Alexandria, Va., where he 
found about a score of fugitives, men, women 
and children, who had committed no ofience 
against the laws of the United States, save that 
of running from rebel masters, but who were 
locked up in prison by the United States 
Marshal. 

They all expressed a wish to be free ; they 
dreaded being returned to their masters; and 
were evidently perplexed by their present 
treatment. One man, on being asked if he 
could take care of himself if he were set free, 
said, " I'se took care of myself forty years, and 
helped massa take care of hisself— tink I can't 
take care of myself alone ? " 

The ideas of the administration, as shown by 
1 the operations of our army all along the slave 
border, from Missouri to Port Royal, has been 
such as to discourage all hopes of its adopting 
the policy of emancipation ; and it is for the 
people, for the men and the women of the 
country, to speak out in its favor. 

It is that they may do so that this Emanci- 
pation League is formed, and that similar ones 
are earnestly recommended everywhere. 

Dr. Howe then apologized for taking so 
much time, and introduced the orator of the 
evening. 



SPEECH OF GOVERNOR BOUTWELL. 



SPEECH 



^3 



Mr. President and Fellow Citizens: 

I do not speak in a representative capacity, 
and the responsibility for what I say is not to 
be divided or assumed by any one. No person 
is better aware than I am, that he who under- 
takes to give public advice in times of public 
peril, assumes a grave responsibility. Nor is 
the responsibility materially lessened by the 
fact that he who assumes it has but slight 
claims to public consideration. In every free 
government, and especially in our own, the 
mature and considerate judgment of the people 
ultimately controls the administration of public 
affairs. As the river which drains and fertilizes 
half a continent, bears upon its bosom the 
navies and commerce of an empire, and 
refuses to be subdued or controlled by any 
power save that of the ocean itself, is but the 
combination of minute rills, which, in the 
mountains where they had birth, escaped 
observation, so the current of public opinion 
on which a nation is borne to its destiny, is 
but the union of individual thoughts, that, in 
their expression, seemed powerless for evil or 
for good. And as the river is dependent for 
its existence as well as for its purity upon the 
mountain rills, so the current of public opinion 
is dependent for its majesty and vigor, upon 
the minute contributions that are made to it 
from distant and unobserved sources. Hence 
no thought is lost— no contribution is unim- 
portant ; nor can any one escape responsibility, 
however he may shrink from duty. Nor 
ought it to be admitted, whatever the circum- 
stances of peace or war, that measures affect- 
ing the welfare of the nation are not to be 
discussed by and before the people. But such 
discussions may have evil effects, unless con- 
ducted with moderation, and under the influ- 
ence of a sturdy patriotism. 

So, too, in times of public trial, the details 
of the public service must be left to the discre- 
tion of those entrusted with the conduct of 
affairs. There must, moreover, be liberality, 
— indeed, a broad and unquestioning generosity 
— in the judgment we form of those on whom 
the responsibility rests. 

But, on the other hand, whenever a people, 
through ignorance or timidity, are incapable 
of examining and considering matters of 
public concern, in a proper spirit and with 
wise reference to legitimate ends, then are 
their liberties in greater peril than they can 
ever be from the hostilities of foreign or the 
machinations of domestic enemies. 



I have come to-night to speak with great 
freedom, but not in the language or spirit of 
complaint or doubt. We have seen how, by 
the energy of the administration, the loyalty 
of the States, and the patriotism of the people,- 
an army of two-thirds of a million of men 
has been raised, equipped and put into the field. 
How a navy carrying more than twenty-live 
hundred guns has been created ; how resources 
to the amount of more than two hundred 
millions of dollars have been gathered from 
the voluntary offerings of all classes. Hence 
we have confidence in the future. IMoreover, 
the country confides in the President. To 
style him honest, is but an inadequate expres- 
sion of the nice sense of justice — the highest 
human attribute — which distinguishes him 
among men. He also possesses what Locke 
calls a large, sound, roundabout sense, that 
enables him to form opinions with care, and to 
act with discretion. These quahties are 
supported by a courage undismayed in hours 
of severest trial. He was among those at 
Washington, who, after the disaster of Bull 
Run, were unmoved either by fears for theii' 
personal safety, or apprehensions of danger to 
the fortunes of the Eepublic. He is sui'- 
rounded by able and patriotic men ; and there 
is a united opiulon in favor of giving to the 
administration a loyal and generous support. 
Nor Is it any indication of a want of confi- 
dence, that the people of Boston, who in times 
of trial were accustomed, in their assemblies, 
to consider .public questions, have now con- 
vened to contribute, if they may, to the 
restoration of peace, the re-establishment of 
the Union, and the return of our former 
political and commercial hajiplness and pros- 
perity. But I may say to you, my friends, in 
the beginning, that I have no suggestion to 
make, "the way to which is not clearly laid 
open in the recent message of the President. 
Ills recommendation to the Congress that terri- 
tory should be acquired to which the black pop- 
ulation of the United States may be removed, 
contains the opinion that the slaves are to be 
emancipated, either as an incident or a conse- 
quent of the war. It is, moreover, the teach- 
ing of experience, that great civil contests, 
based upon questions of domestic policy, must 
be settled by statesmanship. And when, as 
with us now, a nation's existence is In peril, 
questions of policy affecting that existence 
must be settled by a bold, vigorous, compre- 
hensive, foreseeing statesmanship. For 



THE EMANCIPATION LEAGUE. 



" Not to the ensanguined field of deatli alone 
Is valor limited; she sits serene 
In the deliberate council; sagely scans 
The source of action ; weiglis, prevents, provides, 
And scorns to count her glories from the feats 
Of brutal force alone." 

In speaking of the justice, expediency and 
necessity of emancipation as the only speedy 
means of crushing the rebellion and restoring 
the Union, I impose on myself three limita- 
tions, and desire you to connect them with all 
that I may say : 

1st. That a military necessity exists for 
doing what is proposed ; and that I shall 
undertake to prove. 

2dly. That this necessity does not require 
us to take any action in reference to the loyal 
States. 

3dly. That I alwa3's and everywhere con- 
template compensation to loyal men. 

And I first inquire, what constitutes a 
military necessity '? I assume that a military 
necessity does not depend upon the exigencies 
of the army in the field; but the great military 
necessity is to save the government, and what- 
ever is necessary for the salvation of the gov- 
ernment is clearly within the right and the 
duty of those who administer it and control 
the military department thereof. (Applause.) 
I think our constitution has ^^hiinly indicated 
what a military necessity is in that provision 
which declares that the right of habeas corpus 
shall not be suspended unless, in cases of 
rebellion or invasion, the public safety may 
require it. And what do we see to-day ? 
That all of us are here deprived, by the 
exigencies of the times, of the security which 
from tlie days of Magna Cliarta has been, Avith 
here and there an exception, the security of 
all Englishmen, and of all men who inherited 
the riglits and the privileges of Englishmen. 
And why '? Because it is believed by those 
entrusted with the administration of public 
affairs, that the public safety requires it. And 
we have given up the great security which we 
had, that whenever our liberty was taken from 
us we had a right to an inquiry as to the 
reason therefor ; and that right has depai'ted, 
at the bidiling of the government, because, in 
the eye of the constitution, the public safety 
rec|uires it. 

If we <lemonstrate that the public safety 
r<'quires the emancipation of the slaves, here 
or thei-e, or any where, then we have de- 
monstrated that a military necessity exists. 
And, my friends, you arc assembled with 
aii.\ious countenances to consider how tlie 
country shall be .saved ; and you Instinctively 
trace our peril liai-kward to the institution of 
slavery, and arc convinced without argument 
that hail slavery not existed on tliis continent 
there woulil not be a State, no, nor a county, 
nor a parisli, nor a man, in all this rei)ublic to 
say that this L'linju ought not longer to exist; 
tIu;refoi'e we chai'ge iionu-, wllii instinct and 
logic, tiic- rcsponsiliility of tlie whole nuitter to 
tlie inslltutlijn of slavery. And If by tlie 
emancipation of the slaves we can ha.sten by 



one day the return of the power of the Union 
and our lost prosj^erity, does not a military 
exigency exist ? (" Yes ! " " Yes I " " It 
does ! ") 

I hear a suggestion from many quarters, 
which means, if I understand it, substantially 
this : that South Carolina and her ten as- 
sociates in this rebellion are still entitled to 
the protection of the constitution of the Uni- 
ted States, and therefore we are bound to 
treat those States as we treat the States that 
are still loyal to the Union. If we yet labor 
under that delusion, then God save us ! for not 
to the hands of man is entrusted the salvation 
of this republic — if we still indulge in the 
delusion that South Carolina and New York, 
that Florida and Pennsylvania, that IMississippi 
and Illinois, that Texas and JMinnesota, are to 
be treated by the government of the country 
as enjoying equal rights and equal protection 
under the constitution. (Applause.) 

We have not thrust them out of the Union ; 
they have gone out deliberately, freely, with- 
out compulsion ; and in all that relates to the 
subjugation of the territory and of tlie people 
of the rebel States we must treat them as 
enemies, as belligerents. Are we to ask 
whether we are in war with these eleven 
States, when our frontier, from Kansas to the 
Chesapeake, is menaced by their forces, and 
when we, boasting that we have 660,000 men 
in the field, have been outnumbered at every 
point '? If you indulge the delusion that we 
are not at war, and that these people are not 
to be treated as enemies, then the destruction 
of the country is near. We must treat them 
as enemies. When they came into the Union 
they gave to the Union jurisdiction over their 
territory ; that jurisdiction they now deny ; let 
the armies of the republic go forward, let the 
statesmanship of the country secure the right 
that was guarantied to us, and which we have 
not abandoned, however the rebels may desire 
to put off the responsibility from themselves. 
(A])plause.) 

AVhatever is necessary to be done for the 
re-establishment of the government of the 
Union, over the rebellious States, we have a 
constitutional right to do ; for the constitution, 
If it secures any thing, secures the integrity of 
the territory over which and to which the con- 
stitution ajjplles. The rebels have no right to 
complain. We secure constitutional rights, as 
far as we can, to all the loyal States ; disloyal 
States are enemies, and we must so treat them. 

Suppose there are a i'aw loyal num in South 
Carolina, in North Carolina, in Georgia, or 
Texas ; are they to stand in the way of the 
salvation of this country ? I trust not. When 
the war is over, wlien this territory is restored 
to the Union, the government of the country 
is re-established, tiien, if these people have 
sudeix'd by any tiling that we have done, 
make them the compensation that we can. 
Hut wc cannot stop now, when the Union is 
In peril, when the luriil llamcs of war light up 
the horizon on every quarter — can we stop 



SPEECH OF GOVERNOR B U T "W E L L . 



now to inquire whether, in South Ccarolina, or 
in Georgia, or in Tennessee, there may be 
men who wouhl if they could be loyal to the 
Union ? (Applause.) 

Now we have, my friends, labored under 
two or three delusions. First, we did not 
believe, twelve months ago, when the nucleus 
of the " Confederacy " (as it is now called) 
separated from the old Union, that a great 
conspiracy existed. We could not believe 
that men entrusted with important duties — 
Senators and Representatives in Congress — ■ 
officers of the army and the navy, who had 
been supported in luxury from the treasury of 
the nation — judges of the Supreme Court — 
men higli in authority throughout the fifteen 
slave States of the Union — had conspired 
criminally, traitorously, with perjury upon 
their lips and in their hearts, against a govern- 
ment which, as far as we knew, had never 
pressed too harshly upon a single citizen of 
the republic. We could not believe it. It 
was not strange that we did not believe it. 
But now, after a brief and sad experience, we 
find tliat for thirty years this consjnracy had 
existed ; that it covered the whole slave tei-ri- 
tory of the Union ; that it had given birth to 
the annexation of Texas, to the compromise 
measures of 1850, to the repudiation of the 
Missouri compromise in 1854, to the dissolution 
of the Democratic party at Charleston in 1860 ; 
that it had entei-ed systematically upon the 
scheme of destroying the best government 
which the world had ever seen ! It was not 
strange that we did not believe it ; but now, 
now we know that it existed, and we know, 
too, full well, that it had its origin in the insti- 
tution of slavery. And ought not the judg- 
ment of this country to be visited upon that 
institution as a part of the retribution for this 
foulest of human crimes ? (Applause.) 

Another delusion, my friends, was, that we 
did not believe in the unanimity of the South 
upon this matter. We thought that the move- 
ment was instigated and carried on by a few 
hot-brained persons, whom we proposed to sepa- 
rate from the great majority of the people and 
dispose of without special ceremony. But we 
have found, as the war has gone on, that it either 
included originally in the conspiracy all the chief 
men of the South, or that they have been drawn, 
unwillingly or willingly, into it, so that now 
there is no excuse for the man Avho believes 
that there is any lack of unanimity in the 
eleven seceded States. We are not more 
unanimous in this hall, or in this State, or in 
the free States of the Union, in favor of main- 
taining the Union, than they are in favor of 
breaking down this Government and dis- 
gracing free institutions in the jiresence of the 
world and before posterity. 

Let us no longer abide in the delusion that 
there is a want of unanimity in the South. 

Another delusion in which we have in- 
dulged, to this very hour, is that they had 
not resources sufficient to carry on this war, 
and that very soon they would be exhausted. 



I shall have occasion to discuss this subject 
farther, as I go on. But we have found, as a 
matter of experience, during the last twelve 
months, that they have exiiibited no evidence 
of a want of resources. Have not they put 
men enough into the field '? Haven't they, as 
far as we know, ecjulpped them sufliciently for 
the service ? Haven't they had enough to eat, 
to drink, and to wear ? 

Then, as far as the year's experience goes, 
we have been laboring under a delusion as to 
the jiower of the South. 

It may be well enough to explore briefly the 
causes of the rebellion, as developed in the 
institution of slavery itself. And the proposi- 
tion I have to make is that the institution of 
slavery is of such a character that hostility to 
this Government was inevitable, sure to come 
at some time or other. 

A change of opinion has been going on in 
the slave States, which perhaps I may Avell 
illustrate by a short chapter from my own ex- 
perience. In 1857, in the month of November, 
I was at Lexington, Kentucky, and on the 
Sabbath I attended service at what I under- 
stood to be the oldest Methodist Episcopal 
church. I listened to an able discourse. It 
was devoted to the maintenance of three pro- 
positions, which, as far as I could judge, were 
accepted by that congregation ; they were, 
first, that the Saviour never said any thing in 
favor of human equality ; secondly, that he . 
never said any thing in favor of universal 
education ; and thirdly, said the preacher, 
what we need is authority in the church. 

Do you not see, if those propositions be 
taken as indicating the public sentiment of the 
South, that slavery has worked two radical 
changes in the people, both of which are 
antagonistic to free institutions, and upon 
which tree institutions cannot long be main- 
tained ? One Avas the denial of the ecpiality 
of man ; the other was the denial of the right 
of individual opinion in matters of religion. 

And next I have to say, that the Constitu- 
tion of the Union, having been established for 
the purpose — as declared in the preamble — of 
securing liberty to the men who framed it and 
to their posterity, was inadequate to meet the 
wants of the slaveholders. 

We have in the Constitution a provision 
giving to the government authority to put 
down insurrection. But do you not think that 
the time was ibreseen when the slave popula- 
tion might rise upon the plantations of the 
cotton districts, and in a single night the white 
inhabitants be swept away ? And how power- 
less then would be the provision of the Consti- 
tution, even if the government were wielded 
by slavehoWers ! So we see that since the 
revolt commenced, they have steadily marched 
toward the establishment of a military, slave- 
holding oligarchy ; because it is the necessity 
of tlie institution of slavery that it shall be 
maintained by a stronger government than 
that for which our Constitution provided. 
And, in the next place, — I do not propose to 



THE EMANCIPATION LEAGUE. 



discuss it — but, in the next place, it was a 
necessity of slavery that it should acquire new 
territory, because it exhausts that on which it 
fastens. These then, as I believe, were the 
causes of the rebellion. There were pretexts, 
such as agitation in the North, but they were 
mere pretexts. 

There were also inducements to the rebel- 
lion : one of which was a belief that the North 
would not act unitedly and energetically for 
the overthrow of the conspirators. And I 
may say here what I think will be sustained 
by some gentlemen whom I see around me ; 
and, inasmuch as the injunction of secrecy 
upon the Peace Congress was removed on the 
last day of the session, I may say — not for the 
purpose of arraigning any man before this 
assembly, or before this country — that in that 
congress a representative fi-om a free State, a 
State that has with great alacrity furnished its 
quota of men to the army, did announce to 
slaveholders and to non-slaveholders that in 
case the North undertook to put down the 
South " by force " the North would furnish 
a regiment to fight with the South as often 
as it furnished one to fight against it. — 
In justice, to the people of the country, we 
ought to say, in this connection, that the 
South has been entirely disappointed. The 
people, with great unanimity, have come to 
the support of the government, and not one 
regiment — possibly not one man — has been 
found to join the forces of the South. (Ap- 
plause.) But such inducements undoubtedly 
operated to lead the people of the South 
forward in the rebellion they had undertaken. 
Another inducement to the rebellion was the 
bankruptcy of the South. From two to three 
hundred millions of dollars have been rejiudi- 
ated by the rebellion. It is well enough to 
remember that, as long ago as 1792, I think, 
Mr. JelTcrson wrote a letter to Gon. Washing- 
ton urging him to accept a second term for the 
Presidency, and one of the five or six reasons 
■which he gave for the request was the danger 
of secession ; and a reason why he feared 
secession was tliat the South "was largely 
indebted to tlie Nortli. And this indebtedness 
of the South to the North, wiped out for the 
last fifty years at the rate of two or three 
millions a year, and finally consummated by the 
repudiation of two or three hundred millions, 
has always been an obstacle to a firm union 
between the two sections. Another induce- 
ment by which the South has been combined 
as one man, was the cry, pi-onudgated tor the 
first time in that section of tlie country not 
more tiiau five or six years ago, " Negroes l()r 
the negroless!" Thus eviwy poor white man 
in the Soutii, wlio ignoranlly believed it to be 
the lieigiit of human ambition to own a negro, 
was inspired with a hope that at some future 
day he might become a slaveholder, if the 
rebellion could be carried on successfidly — the 
South separated from the Noitli — and tlu' 
African shive-trade opened. This is one of 
tlie means by which the rei)els have been able 



to combine the Southern strength to the extent 
they have. Another reason — I will not stop 
to discuss it — was wounded pride, mixed with 
poverty, always a sourc c of discontent. 

And, in passing, I may say that I believe 
the Southern States, the Gulf States, have 
deceived, to a great extent, the border slave 
States — INIaryland, Kentucky and Virginia ; 
for, when the time should have come that they 
could secure the separation of the slave States 
from the free States, or the Southern States 
from the Northern States, they would incline 
to leave these border States with the North, as 
a bulwark against the spread of anti-slavery 
opinions southward, knowing that under the 
constitution we should return fugitives to these 
border States, and the border States, by State 
legislation, would return fugitives from the 
seceded States. 

Will the rebellion exhaust itself? Consider 
the extent of the territory that it includes. 
Consider the resources of that country in soil 
and climate. Consider the fact that, in con- 
secpience of the existence of slavery, they can 
put in the field, and equip — allowing the insti- 
tution of slavery to remain — one-tenth, or even 
one-eighth of their entire white population. 
And though with the blockade we close up the 
ports, so that they are deprived of certain 
luxuries and necessities of life, they yet can 
command those great staples on which their 
armies will depend for subsistence. They 
possess one power which we have not yet 
attained — and which, I trust, is not in store 
for us — they repudiate their debts as fast as 
they are contracted, " leaving the things that 
are behind, and pressing forward to those that 
are before." (Laughter and applause.) It 
was the estimate of Napoleon that no nation 
could keep more than one in forty of its popu- 
lation in the field. The State of Indiana has 
put one in twenty of its entire population into 
the army; other States one in twenty-five; 
one in thirty; one in thirty-five ; one in forty. 
If it be assumed that the free States can put 
into the field, and keep in the field, one in 
thirty of the entire })opulation, our army will 
not consist of more than about 730,000 or 
740,000 men, and, if you will allow the institu- 
tion of slavery to remain, the three and a half 
millions of men and women in the revolted 
States to continue upon the ])lantations — 
guarded by white women, aged men and chil- 
dren, all armed — if you allow the three and a 
half millions to remain upon the plantations 
and produce subsistence for the army, they can 
keep one-tenth, or one-eigiith, of their entire 
white j)opulation in arms. If you strike from 
the resources of the South the supplies which 
are fiuMiished by the three and a iialf millions 
of black people, do not you see that a jjortion 
of the men who are in the army of the South 
nuist go home to produce supplies? There- 
fore the effect of allowing the institution of 
slavery to remain is to give them an ecpial 
opportunity with us in every contest. But if 
we deprive them of the sujtport they derive 



SPEECH OF GOVERNOR BOUTWELL, 



from their slaves, then a portion of their army 
must return to the plantations, and they would 
be reduced to 150,000 or 200,000 men, and the 
war would be at an end. (Great applause.) 

We may very well inquire whether this 
rebellion — if it go on — is to exhaust us. I do 
not propose to pursue the financial inquiry, 
but it is sufficient to say that the Secretary of 
the Treasury estimates that the public debt, 
on the 30th of June, 18G3 — a year from next 
June, will amount to $900,000,000. If it shall 
happen in consequence of the check that is 
given to the exportation of cotton — in conse- 
quence of a good supply of breadstuff's next 
year in Europe — that there shall be no demand 
for any of the products of this country, and 
there should be a demand for specie in conse- 
quence of excessive importations made inevi- 
table because of an increase in your circulating 
medium, who does not see that bankruptcy is 
before us ? And it is well to consider Avhether, 
if we have no regard for the black man, it is 
well for the merchants of Boston and New 
York, the men who have four million tons of 
shipping on the ocean — a million in the East 
Indies — to consider whether we are willing to 
involve ourselves in a common bankruptcy, 
rather than to strike, while we have the 
power, at the foundation on which this 
rebellion rests. (Prolonged applause.) 

I say, then. It is a necessity that this war 
shall be speedily closed. We have tried block- 
ading. It has been to a good degree eifectual. 
But do you not see that it is powerless with 
reference to producing that which we expected 
from it— the quelling of the rebellion ? Tliough 
our ships line the whole coast, from Galveston 
to the Chesapeake ; though we keep out for- 
eign supplies of every sort; though we cut off" 
the export trade in cotton^till these slaves 
produce that on which the rebel armies — 
armies in the field — depend. You may say 
we can, by one decisive battle, settle this 
matter. We have had 100,000— 150,000— for 
aught I know, 200,000 men on both sides of 
the Potomac for the last sixty or ninety days. 
Possibly by battle we might settle this matter ; 
but we run a great risk. We thought when 
in July our army went forth with banners and 
trumpets, they were marching to victory. Our 
soldiers fought well, victory seemed within 
their grasp, and yet defeat— temporary defeat 
to our arms — resulted. And who knows that, 
with new leaders and new men, we are to 
gain a decisive advantage? When there are 
other means to settle this matter,^ will we risk 
the existence of this republic — risk freedom, 
and its name and fame in all the nations, and 
throughout all time — on the capacity of gen- 
erals on the Potomac ? I say no, if it can be 
avoided. Wars and battles are not the worst 
of evils, but they are to be avoided when and 
where we can avoid them. The life of the 
nation is involved in this contest, to say nothing 
of the men. All of us have sent our friends, 
brothers, kindred — those who are dearer to us 
than our own lives ; and shall we peril them 



on the Potomac, in Kentucky, in Missouri, in 
South Carolina, at the mouth of the Mississippi 
— where my own friends and neighbors, and 
townsmen are to-night — shall we risk their 
lives rather than strike at the institution 
of slavery, when we know that the rebellion 
rests upon slavery, and will go down when 
slavery ceases to support it V (Applause.) 
Have you yet other men whom you wish to 
sacrifice upon this altar ? Ellsworth, Lyon, 
Baker, and others of equal virtue and equal 
patriotism, with names unknown, have gone 
down upon bloody fields, sacrificed at the 
shrine of slavery ; and will you offer up more, 
and yet more, of the best blood of the country 
— the young men, the hope of the nation, the 
strength of the future — in order that slavery 
may longer last ? 

I say, then, it is a necessity that this war be 
speedily closed. By blockade, it cannot be ; 
by battle it may be, but we risk the result 
upon the uncertainty whether the great Gen- 
eral of this continent be with them or with us. 
I come, then, to emancipation. Not first, 
although I shall not hesitate to say before I 
close that, as a matter of justice to the slave, 
there should be emancipation — but not first do 
I ask my countrj-men to proclaim emancipa- 
tion to the slaves in justice to them, but as a 
matter of necessity to ourselves ; for unless it 
be by accident, we are not to come out of this 
contest as one nation, except by emancipation. 
And first, emancipation in South Carolina. 
(Loud cheers.) Not confiscation of the prop- 
erty of rebels, that is inadequate longer to 
meet the emergency ; it might have done in 
March, or April, or May, or possibly in July, 
but in December, or January of the coming 
year, confiscation of the property of the rebels 
is inadequate to meet the exigency^ in Avhich 
the country is placed. You must, if you do 
any thing, proclaim at the head of the armies 
of the Republic on the soil of South Carolina — 
FKEEDOM, (prolonged and enthusiastic cheer- 
ing,)— freedom to all the slaves in South Caro- 
lina, and then enforce the proclamation as far 
and fast as you have an opportunity, (renewed 
cheering ;) and you will have opportunity more 
speedily then than you will if you attempt to in- 
vade South Carolina without emancipation of 
the slaves. Unsettle the foundations of society in 
South Carolina — do you hear the rumbling ? 
Not we— not we are responsible for what hap- 
pens in South Carolina between the slaves and 
their masters. Our business is to save t;he 
Union (cheers) ; to re-establlsli the authority 
of the Union over the rebels in South Carolina ; 
and if between the masters ami their slaves 
collisions arise, the responsibility is upon 
those masters who, forgetting their allegiance 
to this Government, lent themselves to this 
foul conspiracy, and have thus involved them- 
selves in ruin. (Applause.) As a Avarn- 
ing, let South Carolina be the first of the 
States of the Republic in which emancipation 
to the enslaved is proclaimed (cheers) _; as _a 
warning and a penalty for her perfidy in this 



8 



THE EMANCIPATION LEAGUE. 



business, wliioh bejran at the moment that her 
deleixates penned their names to the Constitu- 
tion when it was formed. Treaeliery was in 
their hearts then, and they have adhered to 
their disloyalty tlirough evil report and through 
good report ; but I trust the day is now near 
when by the reeonstruction of South Carolina 
society, we shall there have a State which in 
process of time shall be loyal to the Constitu- 
tion and the Union. 

Next, Florida. Impotent in her treachery ; 
•with less than 150,000 inhabitants ; with prop- 
erty, I suppose, not of equal value to that 
which might be found in a single ward in this 
city, purchased with the money of the people 
— she has undertaken to lend herself to this 
conspiracy. Emancipate the slaves that are 
there, and invite the refugees from slavery in 
the South, for the moment, to assemble there, 
if they desire, without compulsion, and take 
possession of the soil. (Cheers.) If that is 
not sufficient, let ."the penalty upon South ■ 
Carolina be increased by dividing her soil 
among those whom she has heretofore held in 
bondage. (Renewed cheering.) 

And next in this work of emancipation I 
name Texas ; for, if we read the history 
of the last twenty-four months aright, these 
people have gone out of the Union because 
they see they cannot extend slavery in the 
Union. It was not because a few abolitionists 
in the North hated slavery ; it was not because 
some of us went to Chicago in May, 1860, and 
nominated Abraham Lincoln for President, 
and then elected him ; but it was because men 
of all parties and all persuasions, and all ideas, 
in the North, had come to the conclusion that 
slavery should not be extended. It was the 
doctrine of churches, the doctrine of homes and 
hearthstones,. that slavery should not be extend- 
ed, and hence the slave States went out of the 
Union. Which way do they expect to extend 
slavery ? Southward, through and over Texas, 
into Mexico, and into Central America, thus 
cutting us off from the Pacific, separating us from 
our possessions west of the Rocky IMmintains, 
and rendering another division of the Union, 
by the line of the Rocky Mountains, inevitable. 
Now, then, let us teach them, uy emancipation 
in Texas, that in the Union or out of the Union, 
slavery is not to be extended. Emancipate 
the slaves in Texas ; invite men from the 
army, invite from the North, invite fi-om Ire- 
land, invite fi'om Germany, the friends of free- 
dom, of every name and of every nation ; bid 
them welcome in Texas, where we have 
17.'5,000.000 acres of unoccupied land — or shall 
have, when we confiscate it to the Government 
of the United States (ajjplause) — and we shall 
have a b iriier of freemen, a wall over which, 
or through which, or beneath which, it will be 
impossil)h' lor slavery to pass. (Cheers ) 

I do not ()ursue the subject of i'mancii)ation 
further. These three Slates will be sullii'ient 
for warning and penalty, for refuge and lor 
securily against the extension of slavery; but 
I certainly would have it pretty distinctly un- 



derstood, that by the next anniversary of the 
birth of the Father of his Country, we should 
emancipate the slaves in all the disloyal and 
rebellious States, if they do not previously 
return to their allegiance. (Applause.) 

" What will you do," says one, " if you eman- 
cipate the slaves ? " My friend, what will 
you do if you don't ? (Laughter and cheers.) 
What are we doing now, when we have not 
emancipated the slaves ? I want to tell you 
what Mr. Jefferson thought, more than sixty 
years ago, and I ask you if that which he feared 
is not in process of completion to-day ? He 
says in a letter to St. George Tucker, dated 
August 28, 1797: 

'"Perhaps the first chapter of this history 
which has begun in St. Domingo, and the next 
succeeding ones, which will recount how all 
the whites were driven from all the other 
islands, may prepare our minds for a peaceable 
accommodation between justice, policy and 
necessity, and furnish an answer to the diffi- 
cult question, whither shall the colored emi- 
grants go ? And the sooner we put some plan 
under way, the greater hope there is that it 
may be permitted to proceed peaceably to its 
ultimate object. But if something is not done, 
and soon done, we shall be the murderers of 
our own children." 

Terribly prophetic words ! Terrible in the 
possibility of their fulfilment ! 

What will you do with the negroes if you 
e*nancipate them ? As between what we may 
or can do with them and the salvation of this 
country, we ought not to hesitate a moment. 
They are but four million ; and though in 
their weakness they plead, here are five and 
twenty million of men who ask a country ; all 
the coming generations of this continent rise 
now and demand sacrifices of us all, that we 
may secure and preserve a country for them. 
]\Iankind everywhere gaze with anxious eyes 
upon this contest, lest the last hope of liberty 
should go out in this our land ; and if — I do 
not hesitate to say — if the salvation of the 
country demanded the sacrifice of four million 
on this continent, black or white, slave or free, 
North or South, it would be a sacrifice well 
made for so great a cause. But, my friends, it 
demands no such sacrifice. These four million 
of people are able to take care of themselves. 
(Ai)iilause.) Have you considered what it 
recpiires to take care of one's self? I do not 
mean, when I say that these four million are 
able to take care of themselves, that they can 
build cities, that they can set afioat a vast 
commerce : I do not say that they can imme- 
diately become ])roficients in the arts and 
sciences — I do not know that they ever can; 
but do you not see on the face of things, that 
the slaves of the South have to-day possession 
of those industries, are accustomed to the exer- 
cise of those physical ami mental faculties on 
which society first an<l primarily depends ? 
They are ahle to take care of themselves. 

I should like, my friends, to spend a moment 
in statinji some facts in regard to the British 



SPEECH OP GOVERNOR BOUTWELL, 



West Indies, because I believe that the public 
mind has been, to a great extent, deceived by 
the representations that have been made, 
through the agency of slavery, in reference to 
the results of emancipation in those islands. 
If you will pardon me a moment, I will read 
certain statistics, which, in their results, show 
what has been accomplished by the black 
population of the West Indies, emancipated by 
the British Government seven and twenty years 
ago. I venture to anticipate what I have to 
say, by expressing my belief that, Avith the 
exception of Greece, where thirty years since 
there was hardly a house with a roof on 
it, there are no people on the face of the 
earth who have made more progress than the 
emancipated slaves in some of the British West 
Indies. What have they done ? Take, for 
example, Barbadoes. They have opened 
schools, and with a population of 140,000 have 
some 7,000 children in the schools; and they 
have over 3,000 landholders. In Antigua, 
with a population of 35,000, they have more 
than 10,000 children in the day and Sunday 
schools ; and 5,000 landholders among those 
who wei'e slaves seven and twenty years ago. 
In Tobago thei-e are 2,500 landowners, with a 
population of 15,000. In St. Lucia, with 
25,000 inhabitants, there are more than 2,000 
landowners. And even in Jamaica, which is 
the exception to the West India Islands, in the 
matter of prosperity since emancipation, in a 
population of some 400,000, they have 50,000 
freeholders. 

So, then, if a'ou test that people who came 
from slaver}- and barbarism seven and twenty 
years ago, hy the two tests of primary civiliza- 
tion, cultivation of the soil and education of 
the children, they have made great progress. 
But it is well worth while to remember that 
Barbadoes is one of the most populous portions 
of the globe. Of the 106,000 acres of land, 
100,000 are under cultivation, and the price of 
the cultivated laud is from four to five hundred 
dollars an acre. 

If we show that in one single instance 
emancipated slaves have been able to take 
care of themselves and make progress, though 
there may be twenty instances of failure, still, 
the one instance of success demonstrates their 
capacity, and their failures are to be attrib- 
uted to misfortune and the influence of 
circumstances. 

In the next place, (although I do not intend 
to go into the financial aspect of the question,) 
I will read the results of the cultivation of sugar, 
which is the great article of export in those 
islands ; and I know very well that the com- 
mercial community is interested in whatever 
relates to exports and imports. The depen- 
dencies of Guiana, Trinidad, Barbadoes and 
Antigua, previous to emancipation, produced 
187,000,000 pounds of sugar, and in 185G-7, 
they produced annually 205,000,000 — showing 
a gain of nearly 78,000,000 a year ; and their 
imports went up from $8,840,000 to §14,000,000 
a year. And the present Governor General of 



Jamaica, Mr. Ilincks, whom some of you may 
remember as the former Attorney-General of 
Canada, and who was here in 1851 at the rail- 
way celebration, as it was called, states from 
his own knowledge and observation, that on an 
estate in Barbadoes, ninety blacks perform the 
work formerly done by two hundred and thirty 
slaves ; and that the produce of each laborer 
during slavery was 1,043 pounds of sugar, and 
the produce since emancipation of each laborer 
is 3,6G0poundsannually. Healso states thatthe 
cost per hogshead under slavery was £ 1 sterling 
while in 1858, it was produced at a cost of £4 
sterling. So we see that Aviiether we test the 
black population of the British West Indies, by 
the fact tliat they have established schools, by 
the fact that they have become landholders, or 
by the fact that they export of their main staple 
more than they did formerly, they still have 
demonstrated their capacity to take care of 
themselves. (Applause.) 

But I say further, my friends, that it is not a 
matter for argument, but within the range of 
the commonest observation, that the time is 
api)roaehing when the emancijjation of the 
slaves in this country must take place. It is 
inevitable ; and we have now, I think, ohly a 
choice of ways. Emancipation may take place 
by the efforts of the slaves themselves ; it may 
take place by the Government of the United 
States ; it may take place by the action of the 
slaveholders themselves, who led in this rebel- 
lion. But for us, it is first a matter of justice. 
I said I would not omit that consideration, and 
I will not, as a matter of justice to the slaves 
themselves, who certainly have been subjected 
to a sufhcient apprenticeship under slavery, 
through two centuries, to prepare them for 
freedom — which these gentlemen have told 
you is the legitimate and natural result of 
apprenticeship to slavery — if they are ever to 
be prepared. I say, then, justice to the slaves 
demands emancipation. I will not make for 
myself, though others may for themselves, the 
nice distinction which you remember Mr. 
Croswell made when he wrote a letter endors- 
ing and explaining the speech of Colonel 
Cochrane. He says, " The difference between 
the Abolitionists and the Union defenders is 
this — the Abolitionists are in favor of emanci- 
pation because it would be a benefit to the 
slaves. We are in favor of emancipation 
because it would be an injury to or diminish 
the power of the rebel masters." I do not 
care about this nice distinction. It reminds 
me of what Macaulay says of the Puritans. 
" The Puritans," says Macaulay, " hated bear- 
baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, 
but because it gave pleasure to the spectators." 
(Laughter.) Whatever your o])inion may be, 
if you are in favor of emancipation, I do not 
I greatly care whether you fiivor it as a mat- 
I ter of justice to the slaves, or as a punish- 
ment to the masters. And we. must agree, my 
friends, to the Declaration of Independence. 
The fundamental difference on whicli the 
North and South have divided for thirty years 



10 



THE EMANCIPATION LEAGUE. 



is on that part of the Declaration of Indepon- 
dent'e which says, " All men are created equal." 
They have denied it; Ave have undertaken to 
maintain it. We ought to consider, (if you 
will allow me a moment by way of explana- 
tion,) that the Declaration of Independence 
was prepared as a political document. It did 
not relate to those differences among men 
which we see, which we recognize, which are 
natural, which are divine, which are not to be 
complained of. But Jefferson meant, when he 
penned that provision, that no person was by 
birth under any political subserviency to any 
other person. (Cheers.) That is wdiat he 
meant. Not that we are of equal height or 
weight, equal moral influence or intellectual 
capacities ; but that we were equal in this — that 
no one is born under any subserviency, politi- 
cally, to his fellow man. Let us maintain the 
doctrine now. These slaves are men ; Jeffer- 
son did not hesitate to call them " brethren." 
In a letter to M. de Munier, explaining the 
reason why neither Mr. Wythe nor himself 
had proposed to insert a clause for emancipa- 
tion into the slave code of Virginia, he says: 

" There were not wanting in that assembly 
men of virtue enough to propose, and talents 
to vindicate this clause. But they saw that 
the moment of doing it with success was not 
yet arrived, and that an unsuccessful effort, as 
too often happens, would only rivet still closer 
the chains of bondage, and retard the moment 
of delivery to this oppressed description of 
man. But we must await with patience the 
workings of an overruling Providence, and 
hope that that is preparing the deliverance of 
these, our suffering brethren. When the meas- 
ure of their tears shall be full, when their 
groans shall have involved heaven itself in 
darkness, doubtless a God of justice will 
awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light 
and liberality among their oppressors, or, at 
length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest 
his attention to the things of this world, and 
that they are not left to the guidance of a 
blind fatality." 

These slaves are men. The declaration 
concerning the equality of all men aj)plies to 
them as to us; and now that in the progress of 
events the Soutii have relieved us from respon- 
sibility in regard to eleven disloyal States, let 
us stand forth as a nation in oiu" original 
strength and ])urity, maintaining the ideas to 
which our fatliers gave utterance, but which, 
under the circumstances, they were not able 
always and everywhere lo enforce. Let us 
declare in the presence of these slaveholders 
and rebels, in the presence of Europe, that we 
may have ground on which to stand and defend 
ourselves in this contest, that we proclaim the 
equality of all men. (Loud a])plause.) 

As to tlie expediency, still further : Have 
you ever considered — (I see one gentleman, 
Mr. Atkinson, upon the platform, who has 
consiilereil the subject of the cotton culture of 
the Sijutli and written a book upon it which is 
worthy of consideration by every-body) — but 



have you all considered that these men of the 
South have taken possession, b}' circumstances 
and by skill, of the best territory, in soil and 
climate, upon this continent ? This territory 
has been given up to slavery, and the men of 
Massachusetts, of the North, have not the 
power to go there in the jiresence of slavery 
and develop the natural resources of that ex- 
tensive country. AVe have taken possession of 
the fertile lands this side the Rocky Mountains, 
and it is a necessity of our existence that free- 
dom should go South. Therefore it is a neces- 
sity that slavery should disappear. Have you 
merchants, considered — have you manufactu- 
rers, considered, that the 700,000 negroes of the 
South, engaged in the cultivation of cotton, 
have a monopoly of the best cotton lands on 
the surface of the globe, and that their interest 
is to produce just as little as possible '? What is 
your interest '? Your interest is to have these 
lands developed so that they shall produce as 
much as possible. From 184.5 to 1857, the 
supply of cotton in all the markets of the world 
diminished 900,000 bales, and the price Avent 
up from the producing price of five or si.x cents 
to ten, twelve, fourteen and sixteen cents a 
pound in the markets of the Avorld — the manu- 
facturers Avorking all the time upon short pro- 
ducts of the raAv material, and paying fiunine 
prices. We are told by statisticians that the 
Avhole population of the globe is ten or eleven 
hundred millions. The total product of manu- 
factured cotton goods has never exceeded se\^- 
enty cents for each inhabitant of the globe. 
Produce cotton by free labor on the productive 
land of the South, develop it in Egypt, in India, 
in South America, Avherever on the broad zone 
of 70 degrees cotton can be raised at five or six 
cents a pound and pay to the producer a good 
profit, and your manufacturers in New Eng- 
land, in the free States, in England, in France, 
Avill double and treble the amount of goods 
now produced. 

Is it not a matter of some consequence to 
manufacturers, to the people, to the laborers 
everyAvhere, that Ave should take these fertile 
and pioductive cotton lands out of the control 
of these 700,000 slaves, make them free men, 
stimulate them by Avages, invade those cotton 
lands, Avhich can be Avorked by Avhite labor, as 
one-eighth of the cotton lands of the country 
are now Avorked by Avhite lal)or, and tluis in- 
crease the ])roduct of cotton, 25, 50, 75, and, in 
a few years, 100 j)er cent., and stimulate the 
industry and inci-ease the comforts and conve- 
niences of all mankind. 

If you look at this matter merely in a com- 
mercial point of view, Avill you allow slavery to 
retain the best cotton lands, and allow these 
lands to remain in possession of slaves? 

I iieai-d a suggestion just now, from the other 
])art of tlie hall to the effect — if I understand 
it correctly — that if Ave emancipate the slaves 
a great many of them Avill come this Avay. 
Have you ever thought, my friend, that if you 
do not emancipate the Jiegroes, that in conse- 
(pience of the disturbed condition of ail'airs, 



SPEECH OF GOVERNOR BOUTWELL. 



11 



they will escape and invade the free States, 
and that you will have the negroes here whether 
you will or not. But if you emancipate the 
slaves in the South— assuming what Mr. Yan- 
cey said in Faneuil Hall last year — the negroes 
of the North will go South, for he said they 
enjoyed nothing so much as basking in the sun, 
with the temperature at 110 degrees. If the 
slaves be emancipated, what with their own 
natural ability and such aids and appliances as 
the Government and 20,000,000 of people in 
the North can furnish, they will get employ- 
ment, pay, and subsistence. (Applause.) 

Another consideration that ought to be taken 
into account by the commercial men of the 
North is, tliat if we emancipate the slaves, and 
dedicate this country to freedom, the process 
of bankruptcy and repudiation, as a general 
thing, will come to an end, instead of your 
being called every year, in ordinary times to 
contribute one, two, or three millions to the 
support of the South. The time has come, 
after sixty, seventy or eighty years of experi- 
ence, when it is a right which we may demand 
that the people who occupy the best portion of 
the North American continent shall earn their 
own living and pay their own debts. (Loud 
applause.) 

The other consideration, as a matter of 
necessity, to which I invite your attention, is 
this: Having been involved as we are by 
slavery and a conspiracy and rebellion based 
on slavery, we have a right to take security 
for the future ; that there shall be no other 
conspiracy, that there shall be no other rebel- 
lion, that there shall be no other war reserved 
for future generations, growing out of this 
institution. Slavery, in its essential character- 
istics, is a despotism, and you will search long 
and be disappointed often when you seek for a 
slaveholder who is in heart desirous to support 
free, democratic, republican institutions. (Loud 
applause.) If you would take security for the 
future peace of the republic, it must be by 
dedicating this territory to freedom. Nothing 
else will give the country security for the 
future, or freedom to the States that are now 
engaged in the rebellion. 

Emancipation is inevitable, first, possibly, by 
the act of the slaves themselves. I ask whether 
you — I do not ask whether the people of 
Charleston, South Carolina, with their city in 
flames, with the power of the slave population 
in some way or other felt, in this their great 
calamity, I do not ask whether they prefer the 
emancipation that took place in Jamaica, or that 
which took place in St. Domingo, but I ask you 
if now, after the sacrifices you have made in the 
service of slavery, the expenses in which you are 
involved, the just and righteous hatred you 
have for these leaders In the rebellion — I ask 
you if, after all this experience, you ought not 
to choose an emancipation such as took place 
in Jamaica, rather than reserve this question 
of slavery until emancipation takes place as it 
did in St. Domingo. You cannot hesitate, 
whether you look to your own interest, to your 



own comfort, or whether you regard the inter- 
est, the comfort, the welfare, and the safety of 
the slaveholders themselves. And bear one 
thing in mind — that in Jamaica thirty insurrec- 
tions occurred in the century preceding eman- 
cipation, the last of which involved the destruc- 
tion of :;p8,000,000 of property, and was only 
put down at an expense of $G00,000. Since 
emancipation, there has not been an insun-ec- 
tion of the blacks in that island ; and it is a 
contradiction of all human experience to as- 
sume that when these peoi:)le are emancipated 
they will turn round and cut the throats of their 
masters ; and if the United States shall lead in 
the emancipation, even at the head of the 
army, the emancipated population, can be so 
controlled that they shall not commit those 
excesses which have characterized conflicts 
between the oppressor and the oppressed in 
other countries and other ages. 

But I made a suggestion, which I propose to 
consider for a moment, and that is that if we 
do not emancipate the slaves, or if they do not 
speedily take the matter into their own hands, 
the probability is that they are to be emanci- 
pated by the rebels themselves. You think, 
possibly, that it is absurd to suggest that when 
they have involved the countiy In war, when 
they have staked every thing on the institution 
of slavery, they should, under any circumstan- 
ces, be tempted or induced to destroy it. But 
have you considered that there are ten thou- 
sand men in the South, In civil positions and in 
the army, who if this rebellion be put down and 
the government of the Union re-established 
over the revolted States, have only the choice 
between hanging and exile. Do you believe, 
when you remember the sacrifices they have 
already made, when you consider that on the 
coast of Carolina they apply the torch to their 
own property, that in the extreme exigency to 
which they may be reduced, if we shall be suc- 
cessful in the 2)rosecution of the war, they will 
not emancipate their slaves and claim the 
recognition of France and England, and the 
alliance of foreign govei'nments, which alliance 
we see will be but too readily accorded. 

My friends, I have not been startled by 
the intelligence from England to-day, because 
I had seen that we were drifting steadily 
and certainly to a foreign war; and nothing, 
I believe, can avert that calamity within 
a few months, except emancipation of the 
negroes in the South, so that we can say 
to the people of England — to the people of 
France — if you make war against us, you make 
war in the interest of slavery. (Loud cheers.) 
I do believe, although I was educated in that 
school which had but little foith in English 
politics, or in the political principles of English- 
men, that If we Avrlte emancipation on our 
banner there is yet remaining in the heart of 
the English nation virtue enough to say to their 
ruling classes, whatever their desire may be, and 
to the manufacturers, whatever their exigencies 
may be. You shall not interfere to re-establish 
slavery where it has been struck down. (Ap- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



12 



THE EMANCIPATION LEA( 



plause.) I believe also that the French nation, 
which in 1 778 was in alliance with us, which re- 
garded the extremity of Greece, which fought 
for an idea in Italy and restored the unity of that 
ancient seat of power and of majesty in the 
affairs of the world, I do believe that the mil- 
lions of France would say to the Emperor, if 
he were otherwise disposed : This is a war in 
which we can take no part. By emancipation 
we shall be left to ourselves ; but if we do not 
speedily strike a blow somewhere — in South 
Carolina, or Florida, or Texas — as indicative 
of our purpose, I see not any way to avert a 
foreign war, adding untold calamities to the 
difficulties and horrors in which we are at this 
moment in^'olved. 

Do }'ou think that England is without induce- 
ments. History teaches something. Slie has 
her traditions of the Revolution, and of the 
war of 1812; her governing classes are in 
sympathy with the governing classes of the 
South ; her manufacturers desire the raw 
material ; her merchants now urge the govern- 
ment on, and guide it, too, in a policy which 
looks either to the restoration of the Union, or 
to separation ; rind whatever may be the 
result, with equal sagacity. They see veiy 
plainly that here is a breach between the 
North and South that cannot be repaired in 
one generation ; they know that when the war 
closes, they will have the sympathy of the 
South, if they show sympathy to the South 
now. They expect a monopoly of the trade 
of the South, and if the slaveholders bear 
sway when peace comes, whether it come by 
union or disunion, that monopoly will be se- 
cured. It is only by a reconstruction, to some 
extent, of Southern society, that the people 
of the North can participate hereafter in the 
trade of the South. 

Then there is a feeling, not only in England, 
but throughout Eui'ope, that we are advancing 
too rapidly. Conscious as we have been, 
boasting as we have been, it is possible that 
after all we have not estimated the prosperity 
and greatness of the republic as it has been 
estimated abroad. Extending from the Great 
Lakes to the Gulf of JNIexIco and the Ilio 
Grande — from the Atlantic to the Pacific — 
covering the continent, threatening Mexico 
and Central America with the process of 
annexation, — they could not have looked 
otherwise than with anxiety and apprehension, 
upon a nation of Ircemen which promised in 
the course of the present century, to contain 
a population of 100,000,000. 



Therefore, I 
that we are in 011 899 225 8 ^ 

place the nation, «.... ^^^. ^i^^^^..j , .^ ^ j^^^...^^ 
v/here we can defend ourselves as the sup- 
porters of freedom, and appeal to the yeomanry 
of England, the peasantry of France, and ask 
them to keep the peace, while we restore to 
its fair proijortions a government such as the 
world has never before seen, and then we 
may stai-t our country in a career of prosperity 
Avhich shall know no limits in this generation, 
if we escape from the perils in which we are 
involved by slavery. (Loud applause.) 

Our interest and our duty recjuire us to 
avert the calamity of foreign Avar, by any 
sacrifice, save that of justice and honor. 

One word, my friends, and I leave this 
subject. In the exigency in which we are 
placed, we must support the Government 
itself. We may maintain our opinions, believ- 
ing that in due time those opinions will possess 
influence ; but the Government, that must — 
for it is the only means by which the rebellion 
is to be put down — from day to day, with the 
highest Avisdom, and on principles of established 
justice, execute all the principles and pro- 
visions of the Constitution. 

This contest is between Slavery on the one 
side and the Government on the other. Both 
cannot stand. Either Slavery will go down 
and the Government remain, or the Govern- 
ment will be destroyed, and Slavery triumph 
over us all. For slavery it is that we have 
made our sacrifices ; for slavery it is that we 
are involved in these troubles ; for slavery it 
is that we incur these expenditures ; for slavery 
it is that manufactures are paralyzed ; for 
slavery it is that commerce is interrupted ; for 
slavery it is that our foreign relations are dis- 
turbed ; for slavery it is that foreign war 
threatens our borders ; for slavery it is that 
free institutions are perilled throughout the 
world, and among all the coming generations 
of men. Are there still further sacrifices 
demanded for the institution of slavery ? 
Remember the dead that have fallen in 
defence of the country ; remember the living 
who are perilled on the battle-field and in the 
camp ; remember your friends wlio have gone 
out to fight the battle of the Republic, and say 
whether you can lie upon your pillows, and 
feel tliat you have done your duty to them, 
to your country and to your God, unless you 
exert such influences as you can command to 
bring to a speedy termination the cause of all 
our trials. (Loud and jirolonged ajiplause.) 



The foregoing Address by Governor Routwell and also Mr. Sumner's Oration "The Rebellion: — its Origin 
and Main-Spring," for sale by the Emancipation League, for one dollar a hundred. Orders with the money, 
by mail or otherwise, addressed to JAMES M. STONE, No. 22 Bromficld Street, will be attended to. 



Wkiqut & Potter, Printers, 4 Spring Lane, Boston. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

'liillllillllilllllllll 



''J^'^iJl:;||l:;l:;l;Ui|jili,li|§|i|||| j 

011899 225 8^ -^ 



pH8^ 



